The present invention relates to a simulation display, and more particularly to a compact 360.degree. panoramic simulation display system.
Visual display systems are known for simulating scenes that a viewer would observe from a hatch or window of a tank or armored carrier vehicle, or from the cockpit of an aircraft. The scene portrayed to the viewer is representative of surrounding terrain. Up until the present time, existing display simulators have been quite large, bulky and relatively fixed in position. Thus, a projection system "in the round" includes a plurality of viewing screens in circular array, while a number of projectors are synchronized for portraying segments of the panoramic scene. Alternatively, a mirror system can reduce the length of the overall projection path. For instance, a plurality of projectors can be positioned to depict portions of a display on a toroidal screen, wherein the latter comprises a segment of a sphere. The observer can view this screen through a toroidal mirror, also comprising a portion of a sphere. This arrangement is somewhat more compact and still provides the illusion of viewing a panoramic scene from a distance. Nevertheless, the apparatus tends to be large in size and not well adapted to transport from one location to another.